Nicolas Exelmans

Nicolas Exelmans (1800-8 December 1850) was a general of the July Monarchy of France who served in their campaigns in Algeria and Tunisia.

Biography
Nicolas Exelmans was born in France to a family of German descent, and he joined the French Army as a young man. In 1839 he rose to command the Armee d'Algerie, the July Monarchy's army that was currently fighting in Algeria. Exelmans first commanded French troops in the Battle of Tlemcen on 14 May 1839, where he defeated an Algerian army of 3,000 troops under Hasan ibn Hisham without any losses among his 7,245 troops. Exelmans proceeded to occupy Tlemcen and the last Algerian city of Mascara on 8 August 1839, and Algeria was annexed to France as French Algeria.

Exelmans was in command of the French army in occupation of Algeria until 23 January 1842, when France declared war on the Tunis Eyalet. Exelmans' Armee d'Algerie (16,000-strong) defeated the Tunisian army of Sa'd al-Din al-Fasi at the Battle of Bizerte on 6 March 1842, and he destroyed the Tunisian army of 6,000 troops with only 1,177 losses. By 10 November 1842 all of Tunisia was annexed to France, and Exelmans scored another victory. However, the United Kingdom began an intervention in Tunisia to contain France in the British War of French Containment, and Exelmans led his army back to Algiers. With 31,518 troops, Exelmans rescued Algiers from the 30,135-strong British 9th Army on 22 February 1843 in the Battle of Algiers. 14,130 British and 2,902 French troops were killed, and on 21 March 1843 he defeated the British for a second time at the Battle of Medea. On 10 April, the last 2,184 British troops surrendered at Algiers, and the war in Algeria ended. He died of natural causes on 8 December 1850.